Monday, April 20, 2009

Judging by the line wrapped around The Big Chill on Saturday night, Charlotte's first PlayDate was a huge success.

Inside, more than 600 adults channeled their inner child with games of Checkers, Connect Four, Jenga, Cranium, Taboo, Operation and so on. Basically, any game you can think of, the organizers had -- including Pac-Man on a tiny old-school TV and Wii bowling on a giant projection screen.

PlayDate started in Atlanta in 2005 and has since spread to more than a dozen cities nationwide, including Austin, Seattle and Nashville, attracting as many as 800 partygoers each month.

Charlotte organizers Shenan Robinson and Latrina Harris of Unique Affairs wanted to offer an alternative to Charlotte's usual bar/club scene. A mix of couples, singles and groups of friends turned out for the unique event.

And despite the kid-oriented games being played, there's definitely an adult twist to them. Hula-hoop contests pitted hip-shaking women against each other while Beyonce provided the soundtrack. (Who knew people could still hula-hoop past the age of 8?) Commentary full of sexual innuendo followed a giant game of Twister on the dance floor as participants found themselves in more than one compromising position.

It was all light-hearted fun with a great crowd of people who couldn't keep the smiles off their faces about being a kid (well, cocktail-drinking kids) again.

May's PlayDate is still TBA, but no doubt Robinson and Harris will be looking for a bigger venue thanks to Saturday's sell-out crowd. I'll keep you updated.

I really enjoyed myself. It was very nice to be in a smoke free atmosphere and away from the club scene. I t was amazing to see all those people adult peoples have so much fun with no children around. LOL! I have never seen such BIG GAMES--- I am speaking of the pieces to the game like Checkers and Connect Four. I would attend the next one here and invite all that i know.

this is a great idea and alternate to night clubbing. however, a few things. i know pre-sales tix were sold out (i think i heard that # was around 300). when i got there sat night there were WAY too many folx in that building and it made it hard to move around and enjoy yourself, much less see what types of games were available. why was there no limit set after the presales tix were gone? just wondering. also because of the number of people in the building it was FUNKY!!! or to take it back to the old school, just plain ole musty!! not a good look (or smell). it appeared there were a limited number of games but why wasn't there some sort of sign up sheet so if people wanted to play later they could sign up without having to basically stand there and look foolishness? and maybe there could be more games (like checkers, connect four, etc) and a limit to the amount of time a group of people can play at one time. had an incident where the person i came with wanted to play but the people who were currently playing the game kept saying just one more time. maybe a suggestion for next time. also, the people with the wanna play tshirts on were kinda no help @ all. i thinnk from a note i got on fb some of them were volunteers...maybe if you pay them next time they'll be more helpful. maybe. i left annoyed and frustrated @ 12:30. hopefully the next venue is much bigger so it can accommodate the folks who want to come out. continuously bumping into people or having folks stand around the dance floor which blocked every else's view of hula hoop and simon says for example was an awful experience.

Wow what an awful review! The good thing is that from what I've heard about a thousand people including myself disagree with you:-) The was by far the best event I've been to in this city. I'm sure adjustments will be made hello it was the first event. Hopefully if you attend the next one you'll have a better experience because after reading that review I'd love to what you can write on the positive side. xo

Just wanted to chime in on some of the comments up here. I think the general consensus is that it was a worthwhile experience for its first go around in Charlotte. I think the user with the critical comments against playdate made alot of good constructive criticisms that needed to be said. We need people to share those issues that were there to make it a better event. Who could imagined the type of turnout the inaugural event had in the QC, no matter what numbers where projected, it exceeded everyone's expectations, mines included. That's a good problem to have because now they are accounting for it with a bigger venue this time around. I also agree there needs to be better game mgmt involved to give more people a chance to play things they want to play and be able to see all of whats going on with the various signature games. To the volunteers credit, the ones i interacted with were very helpful and some did help me look for games until the crowd became too much to handle. Admission is only 10 bucks so I'm just thankful people are taking the time to help put on such an event that has so much promise to continue to grow. I'm looking forward to have fun with another sell out crowd next Sat. hope to see you all there :-D

Sarah Aarthun is the Observer's pop culture writer. When she's not devouring Entertainment Weekly or writing about local and national celebrities for The 'A' List in the Observer, she can be found at hot spots around town.